New York City

I haven't written anything in a long time- like everyone else on the planet I've been really busy.

Wedding season has come to a close for Jensen and me this year. We've been to approximately a thousand weddings starting back in the spring, and the grand finale was one of Jensen's sorority sisters' weddings in Brooklyn, NY.

Now I've never been to New York City accept when I was 12- I got to explore the city back then for 15 minutes or so i.e. buy a genuine, high quality rolex for $15 and eat a slice of pizza. Pretty awesome for a kid huh? Well it was immediately ruined by having to sit through a 3 hour musical. Now I could probably get down with a play once in a while, but musicals are number two on my list of most hated things in the world, sitting right behind number one, parades.

But that's beside the point; this time was much different. Contrary to what my expectations were going in, turns out I liked it a lot. Mattafack, I loved me some New York City.

The first night we were there was the rehearsal dinner (Jensen was a bridesmaid) and all kinds of drinking. The second day the girls had to get together 6 hours before the wedding for 6 hours of hair and makeup, so I set out to meet the two other guys we were with, who were staying in a hotel in another part of Brooklyn. The hotel calls a cab service when you need to go somewhere, so I hopped in and gave this lady the address--something something 3rd street. I must've forgot to specify Brooklyn because a half hour later we were stopped at what we thought was the address but there wasn't a Super 8--I read the address again and she said "honey we are in Manhattan." So I guess you need to specify the borough, too (I don't know how this shit works, I'm from Collegeville, PA).

My screw up ended up taking me all around the city and getting a tour from Ramona, my cab driver. Turns out she's half Dominican, half chinese, and has been cabbing it for 23 years. I learned about the different sections of the city and her family and the struggles everyone 'cept the rich folks are going through. She explained that property taxes and insurance for running a business are almost impossible now, and people who have been open for more than 40 years are closing their doors. Insurance alone for a dry cleaning business can get upwards of 16k per month, when it used to be $350 - ouch. She was only referring to China Town. I can't imagine what it would run in the other parts. Makes you wonder what's gonna happen to the entire town when everything get's that pricey. The rest of the trip I kept trying to figure out how some kind of a frozen yogurt shop could ever stay open on Broadway, and exciting things like that.

So after my tour (which thankfully only cost me 25 bones) I made it all the way back and met up with the guys for food and beverage. The wedding was awesome, and the day after that was awesome, too.

One thing I noticed was that there are a lot of funny, actually pretty friendly people...not just the assholes you hear about- but there are a good number of them, too. It's a good place to go if you need to blow off steam and are tired of being friendly. I think some people there are so brash because they're expecting to get it anyway in return. I held the door for some lady and she looked at me like I was St. Peter. It was cool seeing all the different types of people there, and if get tired of one scene, you just go to another part of town.

I was thinking that big cities would have more superficial people, but it seemed to be quite the opposite. Everyone is in too much of a hurry, or too stressed to really give a shit about anyone else. I could have had a green monkey sitting on my shoulder the entire trip and maybe gotten one or two double takes.

But yeah, I loved the place, and would love to go back once in a while, so if anyone's ever down for it (and i've got the money), I'm all for it.


Almost hiatus.